Wednesday, February 29, 2012

This month, one of the homeschool book club books was Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin. Even though my kids are about the youngest in the group (I think there is one other child Kutey's age, the rest are probably 2 years older, and there are only a couple there, too!) they love the group. The coordinators are energetic and creative. This time they had 3 different activities after the book discussion was concluded. The kids got to try their hand at painting Chinese characters which they loved. Kutey mostly loved the option to paint. There was also a matching activity to match to their appearance in the book and another matching activity for Chinese characters to the animal they represented. We also got to try some bean buns (I think!). They were tasty and unusual and not something I would have thought to do on my own!

The most important thing this group gives us, however, is a group where Kiddo is not the oldest. I hadn't realized how important that might be until this fall. He loves hanging out with older kids and learns a great deal from them. This group has a number of boys in the 11 to 15 age range. They are all very kind and let Kiddo hang around them, include him when necessary, and are good role models. They are actually pretty good with Kutey, too. I am grateful to have found them, to have a fun activity to go to once a month, and to be reading great books!

Speaking for the great books, we listened to Where the Mountain Meets the Moon on cd and loved it. It was well presented, the reader was great, and it meant that we could listen on our way to and from our other activities. I think it was around 4 hours long. Kiddo loves audio books, and this one was no exception. He kept wishing we had to drive farther so he could listen longer. I loved how there were many tales woven into the storyline, and how they all came together. It was a marvelous listen.